NA 122 Rigging Case Court Decision

LAHORE: The election tribunal is expected to announce its verdict regarding alleged rigging in NA-122 this afternoon. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had alleged that Sardar Ayaz Sadiq stole the peoples mandate during the 2013 general elections through pre-planned rigging.

Sadiq had won the election beating PTI chairman Imran Khan by nearly 9000 votes, and was later elected as Speaker of the National Assembly.

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan had then challenged the election of Sardar Ayaz Sadiq from the NA-122 before the election tribunal.

PTI has maintained before the tribunal that Sadiq had stolen the election through pre-planned rigging and not as a result of negligence on part of the polling staff.

According to a NADRA forensic report – submitted to the election tribunal in May this year – 93,582 votes in NA-122 could not be verified. At the time Imran Khan claimed that he had paid Rs. 2.6 million to verify the votes adding that he will check all 93,000 votes to see if the ID cards match.

Khan claimed that according to his party’s calculations 15,000 of the 73,000 votes which were verified in NA-122 were bogus.

LAHORE: The temperature outside the election tribunal expected to announce its verdict over rigging allegations in NA-122 continues to rise as Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supporters fill the air with slogans in favour of their respective leaders.

The official working hours for the tribunal have finished and the verdict regarding alleged rigging during the 2013 general elections in NA-122 Lahore is expected anytime.

Barriers erected to keep the supporters at bay have already been removed by the crowd. PTI chairman Imran Khan has arrived in Lahore ahead of the verdict which could further charge the supporters present at the election tribunal.

There is a probability of the verdict being delayed as police officials have briefed the Election Commission that the situation may deteriorate if it is announced today. Secretary Election Commission Babar Yaqoob has called IGP Punjab and said that NA-122 verdict should be announced in a free atmosphere and there should be no intervention.

Earlier in the day the two charged up sides came close to clashing but the situation was kept under control by a large contingency of police commandos and policewomen deployed on site.

Geo News correspondents on the scene reported earlier that police erected barriers in front of the supporters in order to keep them from clashing while the personnel deployed on site created a human wall.

In order to keep the situation under control further police reinforcements have been summoned on site including a water cannon to disperse supporters in case they turn violent.